Managed Expectations, Part 12 of 14: A Potentially Bad Decision

A Bad Dream
– A Place to Stay – The Obvious Dog-Sitter – Who’s a Bitch Now? –
Playing ‘Remember When’? – What Ex-Boyfriends Are For

At around six am on a Tuesday morning, Nicole awakened to what
sounded like a small waterfall flowing through her kitchen. She had
been in the middle of a recurring dream she’d been having for at
least the last decade. In it, she was always at a large high school
that looked nothing like her own leafy alma mater. Even though she
was enrolled there, she was lost, looking for a class she had
neglected to attend all year-some nights it was science, other
nights it was math, once it had been a ceramics class-and she had
to show up and get a perfect score on the final in order to
graduate. Nicole was still trying to figure out how best to
describe the anxiety it caused her for her dream journal when she
opened her kitchen door to find a pipe had burst and the ceiling
had caved in.

She shut the door, blocking the gap between the floor and the
bottom of the door with a few towels, and started making the
necessary phone calls. Debbie, her landlady, had offered to put her
up at hotel in downtown Brooklyn while her apartment was being
fixed, but Nicole found Marriotts depressing. Plus, Darshan was
going to her family’s house in Vermont for two weeks and offered up
her loft.

“You’re going to love it,” she said. “I made this insane indoor
yurt for the living room. It’s perfect for meditation or making
out.” After her loft had been shot for The Selby, Darshan had
decided that she felt “really exposed” by so many people seeing her
bed and couch and had devoted much of August to redecoration.

But first, Nicole had to drop off Toussaint at Jared’s because
Darshan didn’t want dog hair on her Kazakh blankets. She had been
avoiding Jared ever since Eva had attempted blackmail at the Tea
Lounge. She told Eva that she didn’t really care if Jared knew
about the pregnancy scare. This was sort of true, but, at the same
time, Jared was the child of therapists and had a penchant for
processing one’s feelings. At least Eva would be at work.

“I’m on the phone, come on up,” Jared said when she buzzed. She
stood in the living room feeling distracted. Seeing her old
apartment with the furniture in a different arrangement, photos of
the happy couple on the wall, and a “For Like Ever” poster that was
no doubt Eva’s doing was never something she would get used to.

“This day already sucks,” Jared announced as he walked in from
the kitchen.

“I know,” Nicole said. “My apartment is two inches deep in water
right now.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “It
sounds like you’re having a hard week.”

“Eva told you,” Nicole moaned. “God, she’s such a bitch. Why are
you even with her?”

“I like that about her.” Jared sounded chipper. “I liked that
about you.”

“I am not a bitch!”

“Remember that time you wouldn’t even pretend to eat the chicken
at my mom’s birthday because it wasn’t free range?”

Toussaint darted down the hall and she and Jared followed the
dog as he ran into Jared’s room. He jumped up on the bed, rolled on
his back, and stuck his feet in the air, which indicated that he
wanted to be petted. Nicole sat down and started petting Toussie’s
belly.

She noticed that Jared was wearing a Spiritualized t-shirt that
was over ten years old. “Remember when we saw them play in San
Francisco? And we ended up sleeping in your car on the way
home?”

“We had fun,” he said.

“We did.” She could feel herself blushing.

Jared cleared his throat. “You know, Nicole, sometimes I miss
you.”

“You do?”

“Don’t you?”

“Well,” she tried to answer but instead looked around at the
dog, the ex, the former bedroom. “I don’t really know if we should
be having this conversation.”

“Then why are you sitting on my bed?” he asked. And with that,
Nicole raised her leg toward Jared, who began to unlace her
shoes.